Antimicrobial Peptides and its Role in Gastro-Intestinal Diseases: a Review

Abstract

The extensive use of antibiotics to treat human or animal infections is the cause of an alarming increase in antibiotic resistance among Gram-negative, Gram-positive and fungal pathogens. Therefore, the search continues for new antibiotics that are active in vivo, are fast acting and broad-spectrum, do not induce bacterial resistance and have limited side effects. Synthetic congeners of natural antimicrobial peptides are good candidates. One component of host defence at mucosal surfaces seems to be epithelial derived anti-microbial peptides (AMP). This review summarises the diversity of anti-microbial peptides and their role in gastro-intestinal diseases.